The Place I'll Return to Someday
by lonesomesilver
Summary: This story attempts to answer some of the questions the end of the game left us guessing about. Any and all constructive criticism is welcome. Newly updated.
1. Prologue

_Hello, readers. This is my first writing concerning _Final Fantasy IX_. Please review this story if you have the time. Any and all constructive comments will be taken to heart. Happy reading!_

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The Place I'll Return to Someday: My Afterthought on _Final Fantasy IX_

**Prologue**

Kuja died in my arms. His wounds were too great, and he died in my arms while the Iifa Tree died around us. There was no possible way that I could have saved him, but I couldn't just let him die friendless and alone. I was willing to lay down my life to let Kuja know that I cared for him. As it turns out, I did.

Before Kuja's death, he asked me why I came back. I honestly didn't have an exact answer for him. I told him that you don't need a reason to help people just like I tell everyone else. Of course, I had mixed feelings. My head had told me to let Kuja have his just desserts, but my heart forced me to leave my friends and the girl that I quietly love to help him in some way.

The Iifa Tree shuddered and moaned as some massive energy tore its way through its blackened branches. I looked into Kuja's eyes, and I could see his consciousness waning. He apologized to me for his lust for power and all the death he had caused with his last few breaths. Kuja silently cried as the Iifa Tree collapsed around us. And, thankfully, he died before he had to suffer through the immense pain that afflicted me.

As the tree imploded, blunt branches carved their way inside of me; and, like a dying snake, I writhed in terrible pain. Even though the physical hurt was indescribable, I thought of nothing but my friends, Kuja, my Tantalus brothers, Mikoto and the rest of the genomes, and the one whom I love above anyone else. As I laid there bleeding to death, my mind raced through my journey with good ol' Rusty, little Vivi, Freya, Quina, Eiko, the stolid Amarant, and—Dagger. My thoughts lingered on Dagger for the most part. I'd never had the chance to tell her how much I love her, and I hated myself for that. I hated myself for my selflessness. I hated myself for causing her grief. Branches of the Iifa Tree fell upon my tattered frame squeezing away what little life I had left even faster. A final surge of pure agony coursed through my body, and I plunged into absolute blackness.


	2. Chapter I

**I**

Looking back in reminisce  
I see a smiling countenance;  
And I wonder to whom it belongs.

"Zidane Tribal," a voice called out to me, "get on your feet." My eyes quickly opened, and I saw an incredibly blue, cloudless sky above me. My body laid on a seemingly endless meadow with an enormous tree growing at what I could only guess was the center of the world in which I found myself. I stood up, and my tail twitched in anticipation. An ethereal light projected from the tree. That tree was apparently this world's only source of light.

"Who's there?" I tried to cry. My voice was nothing however.

"Here, you must think young genome," the knowing voice replied. "I am aware of your sadness, for I have been watching you for a long, long while," the voice ended.

"Who the hell is this?" I bravely asked. I most certainly was freaked out, but I wasn't frightened. The voice was rather soothing. It didn't have a specific timbre; rather, it was just there. It was as if I innately knew what was being said to me. It's hard to explain. . . .

"Of course, it is only fair that you know who I am since I know you oh-so-well. I am to be called Gaia by you young genome. I am the very essence of the world you have spent so much of your time in, the very world you and your friends saved from utter destruction." A warm breeze blew my bangs in my eyes, and I raised my hand to brush them away.

"So am I dead or what?" I laughed.

"Your body is dead, but I have control over your spirit, Zidane. After all, you did die on my face." I thought that I could make out something resembling laughter after the presence said this.

"What exactly do you want with me?"

"I want to reward you, genome. I want to renew your life because you so carefully looked after mine."

"You—want to bring me back to life? You do that kind of thing?" I was bewildered. I could hardly believe that I was speaking to the planet. My tail was wagging in surprise.

"Zidane," the nothing voice rumbled inside of me, "I can do anything I please."

"Why did you allow Kuja to go so far then?" I rather daringly retorted.

"I work through creation young genome. You and your companions did stop Kuja, and you cleared the Crystal of Necron's corruption as well. I am a figment of the Crystal, so is this reality. Existence waxes and wanes, but the Crystal is eternal. Life will always flow from it. Light and darkness too."

"That's hard for me to grasp," I said with a puzzled expression. I remembered the eight of us reaching the altar in the Crystal World where the Crystal seemed to call us forth. At the time, I didn't think too much of it. We cautiously approached it because it was beckoning us to come to it. A mighty force called Necron waited for us there, and he nearly killed us all. With a bit of luck, we kicked his sorry ass in the end though.

"Allow me to expand upon my previous statements," the planet interjected. "Because of Kuja's greed, you were led to the Crystal. Necron, a figment of sin, had aimed to become one with the Crystal. He wanted to bring destruction to the reality it had woven."

"So in a strange sorta way, Kuja saved us all," I thought. My heart ached for my brother at that moment.

"Kuja was misguided. Like you, he was created to be an Angel of Death. However, he had not let go of that purpose like you. Even though he did defy his creator, Kuja still made quite a mess of things."

The pale light emanating from the tree shone upon me. I had tears in my eyes. When I was younger, I had searched for the place I belonged. I thought that would mean finding my parents, but nothing ever came of that search. When Baku and the rest of Tantalus so willingly took me in that day in Lindblum, I learned that it is up to the individual person to find where home is. When I arrived in Terra, however, I was lost again. I discovered that I never had any parents. There, I also realized Vivi and I share a common bond: we were both made to fulfill the foolish intentions of our respective creators. Both of us have stepped away from the paths we were made to follow though. Vivi is so brave. I freaked out after finding out that I was a genome. If my friends weren't there to support me, I would have completely lost it. If Dagger hadn't reached out to me, I may have very well joined Garland—my creator. I eventually climbed out of the pit that I had dug for myself and went on to defeat him.

In a single blink, my surrounds had changed. The pale light still emanated from the center of the world; however, the meadow and tree had disappeared. My feet stood on nothingness because I was floating in a pool of endless water. I felt calm. Strangely, I did not get wet even though I was immersed in water. It was as if I had a liquid blanket all around me. I was surprised to find myself naked and unashamed. Also, a lack of oxygen was not a concern of mine at all. I believe I experienced something like being in a mother's womb at that moment, even though I've never actually experienced that.

"Are you aware of how long you have been absent from the physical world, Zidane?" Gaia asked.

"I have no clue," was my terse response. I swished my tail through the water.

"Well, as of now, you have been missing for five months, two weeks, and eight days according to the calendar system you are familiar with. It is not in the nature of immortal entities to keep track of time because it is of little importance. Time does indeed march on, but it has no impact on eternity."

"It feels like less than ten minutes have passed though," I cried. I didn't quite pay attention to the planet's earlier digression about time. My mind was elsewhere.

"Speaking of time, it is nigh time for you to return to the physical world genome. It will be a painful experience returning to your body however. I hope you are ready."

"Can I ask you for a favor first, Gaia?" I hurriedly asked as the water around me grew heavier and my present consciousness diminished. I was caught off guard because I wasn't expecting such a sudden withdrawal from this world.

"I have prepared a path for Kuja young genome."

The planet spoke those final words to me as I faded fast. . . .


	3. Chapter II

**II**

My eyes burn in agony.  
Mine happiness escapes from me.  
Will I never be able to fly?

[I faded fast. . . .]

**_Genome. . . ._**

My form was immersed in blue light. The Gaian moon shone brilliantly upon the barren, frozen field on which I awoke. I could feel the raw power of the planet dwelling within me, but my sense of self was buried in the immense power of which I had become a vessel. I didn't know where I was, nor did I care. The raw energy of Gaia had corrupted my thoughts. I was in some kind of feral trance, and I couldn't focus my ego.

At that moment, I was not in control of my body. My psyche was entangled in the net of overwhelming energy, and it was desperate to escape. As I fought with myself internally, my physical self laboriously marched through the snowy wilderness. My vision was polluted with the whiteness of blowing snow.

**_Focus, genome. . . ._**

Suddenly, I halted as though Vivi had cast Stop magic on me. Everything seemed so still on the outside, but I could feel the Gaian energy welling up inside of my body. My consciousness was increasingly weakened by the power I involuntarily held within me. I could barely feel the arctic wind pick up when the restless energy swirling inside of me finally ceased. For an instant, I felt free; then some terrible pain flared up inside my body. The energy lifted me off the snowy earth as if I was a marionette. A brilliant blue surged out of my mouth and into the moonlit heavens. And I was sure that the light could be seen from miles around.

**_Open your conscious to us. . . ._**

After I was emptied of the planet's energy, I regained my ability to perceive. I could feel the crispness of the chill air slapping me in the face. I could grasp the distance between me and the steel blue moon hanging in the sky. Then, for a moment, time stopped completely; and I hung about thirty feet in the air as if I was stuck there. I was alive, but it seemed like I was about to be dead again before I could even enjoy it. After briefly defying physics, my body finally fell to the hard tundra. Fear was something I hadn't felt since my death, and I still wasn't afraid. I closed my eyes while bracing for impact, but I never hit the earth. It seemed like I was caught in a perpetual plummet; the world simply vanished before me as I fell deeper into the spirit of Gaia.

For a while, I fell deeper, deeper into a foreign dimension. I could make out nothing material in front of me. Just white. A white more brilliant than anything in the living dimension. I knew that this was the soul of the planet, the place that I had gone to when I had died. I was slightly annoyed and very confused.

"Was I not promised my life back?" I loudly thought. But just as soon as I had screamed that thought, I landed face-first on the sort-of ground. It was like the entire plane was some sort of magnet attracting my soul. While gauging my situation, I could hear a whispered conversation behind me. The voices weren't at all like the voice of Gaia.

"So, is the alien angry at us?" a woman's voice sang to itself behind me. After hearing those words, I tried to pick myself up again. My spirit wouldn't move though.

"You know that it matters not, Virgo," a hollow voice bellowed.

"We should at least move the child, Capricorn," the woman's voice spoke. "I don't want the—"

"You do know that I can hear you, right?" I interjected in frustration.

"Quiet, boy!" the voice called Capricorn rumbled.

"Don't speak to the alien like that, Capricorn," Virgo cried. "He deserves to know what will become of him." With those words, I began to feel a twinge of apprehension.

"Where am I?" I inquired rather sharply. "Can somebody kindly tell me what this is?" Oh, was I ever homesick and angry then. And I wanted these voices to know it. There I was with my face plastered against the nonmaterial floor of this seemingly blank dimension, and here were two all-knowing entities whispering about me, the alien, behind my back. Normally, I would have kept my cool; but there was something irritating about my whole situation in this dimension. It felt as though I was Gaia's plaything. At the sound of my shouting, the magnetic plane stopped being magnetic. But before I could savor the freedom, a massive power pulled me off of the floor by my poor tail.

"Alien unhappy," a dumb voice woefully yelled as it began heaving with a sob. Then, I could see the projections of these spirits. I had the feeling that I had seen their images somewhere before, but that little bit of déjà vu only made the situation that much more confusing.

"Unhand him, Taurus," the wizened goat named Capricorn demanded. I stopped my squirming to study the robed creature. The goat's ornate robe with loud checks and gilded fringes starkly contrasted with his silvery fur. I knew this creature from somewhere, I just couldn't recall then. Moments after Capricorn's order, I fell to the floor with a thud; and Taurus ended his sobbing fit with my fall.

_to be continued_

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_Hiya, readers. I will not be updating Chapter II again until it is fully written. It's just that I felt bad leaving it with less than 1,000 words when I have so much to tell. I plan on implementing the rest of the Stellazio too. Please keep on reading _^_^

_Oh, and thanks so much for all the positive reviews. They're the reason that I decided to finish this story. I would love to hear what you have to say, good or bad; so feel free to review what little I have completed if you have the time._


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